Big Ten Power Rankings and Bowl Projections - Week 8

It only took us 7 weeks to predict the B1G will not have enough teams to fill their bowl obligations. A new record?

B1G Rank	Bowl	This Week (Week 7)	Previous Week (Week 6)
1st	vs Pac-12 #1
2nd	vs SEC #2
3rd	vs SEC #4
4th	vs Big 12 #4
5th	vs SEC #6
6th	vs Big 12 #6
7th	vs Conf-USA #4
8th	vs MAC #1	NONE

1. Ohio State (6-0, 2-0): Been sitting in this spot since week 1. Probably won't budge anytime soon.

2. Wisconsin (4-2, 2-1): Proved they're worthy of their #2 spot with an impressive dismantling of Northwestern. That loss in Columbus will haunt the Badgers for the next 7 weeks.

3. Nebraska (5-1, 2-0): Like Michigan, Nebraska's schedule gets tougher in November. But for now, they're beating the teams they're supposed to beat.

4. Michigan (5-1, 1-1): A shanked field goal away from being 6-0 and #2 on this list. Big loss for the Wolverines in Happy Valley. They must regroup for the November grind.

5. Michigan State (5-1, 2-0): If things play out the way they should, UM and MSU will both be 7-1 when they play on November 2nd.

6. Penn State (4-2, 1-1): Let me just say that if the Penn State fans show up for every game the same way they did for Michigan, this squad could finish with another 8-win season. Easily. They get the week off to prepare for the trip to Ohio State.

7. Northwestern (4-2, 0-2): Rough couple of weeks for the fighting Fitzgerald's. The dream trip to Indy just got quite a bit tougher. Odds are the Legends winner will have at least 1 loss...maybe 2. So the Cats aren't mathematically eliminated just yet. But they must win out.

8. Illinois (3-2, 0-1): I don't know anything about Illinois other than Nathan Scheelhaase. Their schedule toughens up considerably, so a bowl seems almost impossible.

9. Indiana (3-3, 1-1): The Hoosiers are the one bad B1G team that no one wants to play. So yay they play Michigan this week!

10. Iowa (4-2, 1-1): Speaking of tougher schedules. Iowa plays all of the best teams in the league starting last week with their loss to MSU. I see maybe one more win on their schedule.

11. Minnesota (4-2, 0-2): The good news is they're getting Northwestern at the perfect time. The bad news is it's their last realistic chance at a win.

12. Purdue (1-5, 0-2): Just terrible.